


Signs of Recovery

by DustToDust



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-23
Updated: 2016-06-23
Packaged: 2017-12-24 08:57:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/938061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DustToDust/pseuds/DustToDust
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Drabble series.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Clint’s head is still ringing as he falls in behind _Captain America_ —and he blames Coulson for the internal musical flourish that comes from thinking that name— and his mind is an absolute mess that he doesn’t want to think about yet. He pushes all of it aside. Repressing everything because he has a goddamn job to do now. He can’t afford to be a damaged wreck of a man until he’s sure he’ll live through the day.

He’s stating straight ahead. Running through the supplies he’d managed to grab and planning out how best to use them when he realizes Natasha is trying not to laugh.

It’s a laugh that only shows in her eyes and the lines beside her mouth, and is only ever meant to be turned on Clint. He tilts his head in question and gets an eyebrow in return. Nat’s lips purse as she turns her head forward and pointedly stares straight ahead with the tense look she takes on when shes imitating him. She’s also staring a good foot South of where she had been before. Clint follows her gaze and-

Oh. Whoops?

Clint meets Nat’s laughing gaze again and grins. Pretending not to read the absolute relief hiding behind her laugh, because to her everything is going to be alright. Clint wouldn’t be staring at _Captain America’s_ ass otherwise.

He lets her have her relief as they enter the hangar, and keeps his gaze under the other man’s belt as long as possible just to see how far he can push that not-smile on her face.


	2. Cinderfella

“No, I’m Cinderella! We can’t both be Cinderella!“

Steve grins as Clint’s affronted face makes his niece giggle. The joy in that one sound is real and grounding in a way that Steve admits he needs right now. The whole team needs it really, and probably needed it long before they’d had their heads spun around.

They’ve still got an enemy out there that they need to take care of, but spending time on the farm with Clint’s family is doing more to help them find their balance again than anything else and Steve’s grateful for the trust Clint’s extended them to allow it.

"Fine, you can be Cinderella,” Steve lowers his head when Lila reaches up for the plastic crown she’d given him to wear. She fusses around putting it on Clint’s head. Making sure the blue beads of it are centered before stepping back to her toybox and burying herself in it in search of something else for Steve.

“I would have made a good Cinderella,” Steve protests just to see Clint grin at him. The crown had pinched but he’d been willing to put up with it.

“Nah, you’re a better Prince Charming,” Clint settles down onto the floor across from him. Wearing a sweaty and dusty work clothes that smell of hay he should look ridiculous with the glittering crown, but he doesn’t. "Think you’re chest is to broad to pull off the ballgown look properly.”

“Not according to the internet it isn’t,” Steve says with a perfectly straight face. Clint seems to have trouble breathing for a few seconds before the laughter comes out. Loud and bright like Lila’s, and something Steve doesn’t think he’s ever heard from the man before.

Hawkeye has laughed before but never this carefree and openly. Steve wonders when they would have been allowed to meet the real Clint Barton if this emergency didn’t take place.

“Tony tried getting you once with the internet didn’t he?” Clint asks when he’s calmed down. “Tell me you trolled him hard.”

Tony had once tried to get Steve to Google some terms. Many of them things Steve had already come across because the internet does not hold back on anything no matter how carefully a person might browse. Tony’s attempts to shock him hadn’t worked. At all. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Here! Put this on!” Steve blinks down at Lila who is holding out a creased cardboard crown. Glitter falls gently from it as he puts it on, but it is clearly a king’s crown. The girl adjusts it critically before being satisfied. “Now you’re really Prince Charming.”

“Why thank you, Princess,” Steve grins and sketches out an awkward bow from where he’s sitting. It’s enough to make her laugh again and when Steve turns he finds himself the subject of an intense look. One he knows he’s never seen on Clint before, and makes the small bedroom feel even smaller and warmer than before.

It’s quickly wiped away as Lila orders them around, but Steve keeps the look and that feeling in the back of his mind.


	3. Highschool AU

“I’ve loved you for so long, that any relationship I enter was just an attempt to get over you. But I couldn’t,” the words drag out of Clint’s mouth reluctantly. His shoulders are tense, waiting for the inevitable let down from Steve, but there’s still a relief in saying them. In getting out this secret that he’s been holding onto since high school. “I couldn’t get over you at all.”

Some days it feels like Clint’s whole life revolved around that one secret and his struggle to keep it to himself. To not let anyone, but especially Steve, know about his feelings. Just so he could keep the friendship they share unchanged. Too bad Clint’s so bad at keeping secrets, at least from his close friends. Clint’s had to deal with Nat’s knowing judgement, and Tony’s very unsubtle prodding for years now. Put up with their meddling as they did everything they could to get Clint and Steve together alone. In increasingly obvious ways. It’s really a miracle that Clint was able to keep his secret for so long.

Steve is silent and Clint can’t bring himself to look at him. He’s still terrified of the reaction he’s going to get. Because he likes Steve as much as he loves him, and he never wanted to lose his friendship. Not over something like this. The silence grows and stretches and Clint drums his fingers on the table. His resolve wavering until he has to look up to see Steve’s face, to see how he’s taking this.

There’s a soft smile on Steve’s face that makes Clint’s breathing stutter. A wild and unexpected hope growing in him because that’s not the face of man looking to let him down gently or go running away screaming into the night.

“Really?” Steve says and Clint startles when his nervously moving fingers are covered. Steve squeezes his hand and his soft smile deepens into something that makes it hard for Clint to breathe. “Then I’m sorry I didn’t press earlier. We could’ve been doing this a lot sooner.”

“This?” Clint asks dumbly, his mind not really up to putting Steve’s words into any order that makes sense.

“This,” Steve repeats with a grin that’s now sly before leaning over the small table to kiss him. A gentle meeting of lips that shorts out any remaining brain cells Clint’s got as his heart feels light enough to make him float.


	4. Dessert

“For dessert, what would you suggest to get the taste of the main course out of my mouth?” Steve asks with a grimace as he pushes the plate away, and it takes an unholy amount of effort for Clint not to slide in the easy line that opening gave him.

“I’d say a couple pitchers of whatever is on tap, but that’d work better for me than you,” Clint hates wasting food, he really does, but this place is just too horrible for him to even try anymore. He should’ve known better than to try when the appetizers came out burnt. “Who suggested this place again?”

“Tony,” Steve says which explains all about why the man seems to have made himself at home at the bar instead of the table. He hadn’t even bothered ordering anything. They should’ve paid more attention to that fact earlier.

“Never again?” Clint asks and gives up on the plate. Nat’s been gone for twenty minutes now and Clint has no delusions he’ll see her again before the next day. “He’s got good taste in dive joints, but anything upscale is just horrible.”

Steve nods but there’s a thoughtful look to his face that Clint turns to out of habit. He’s used to seeing it on the field when things aren’t going to plan and some new strategy needs to get made fast. Steve makes a decision and stands, reaching for the jacket he hadn’t allowed to be taken from him at the door. “Let’s go.”

He doesn’t ask any questions. Just gets up and follows. “Lead the way.”

~

Four blocks and an alley with a rough looking crowd who’d been smart enough not to start anything leads Clint to an honest to god ice cream parlor. One with the frozen marble top that Clint can never seem to find on his own.

“Ok, yeah, this does the trick,” Clint groans around his spoon full of magic. There’s chocolate and nuts and caramel folded into it, and he has no regrets taking Steve’s suggestion to get it. “Dinner, what dinner. We’ve only had ice cream all night.”

Steve grins at him, obviously pleased by Clint’s approval. “There’s another place down the street from here, does some good waffles in the morning.”

“Yeah?” Clint asks with interest because good waffles are never something to pass over. “You come down this way a lot then?”

Most times when anyone goes out it’s Tony suggesting where to go, and most days he suggests places he knows will get some sort of a rise out of Steve. A fun practice that Clint’s going to have to put a stop to now that it’s bitten himself in the ass. Maybe it’s time to start letting the Captain do the suggesting if even a fraction of the places he knows of are as good as the place they’re in now.

“I pass a lot of place when I go running,” Steve says with a slow shrug as he continues to watch Clint shovel his mouth full of ice cream. Clint’s not ashamed. The stuff is too good. “Sometimes I go back to check them out. Did you want to go out with me tomorrow?”

“For a run?” Clint doesn’t bother hiding how unenthused he is at that thought. He does his own running on his own terms, and those terms don’t involve keeping up with a super soldier.

“No not that,” Steve says with a laugh, a light blush staining his face from embarrassment. “I meant for breakfast. I’ll take you to the place I told you about. They got good coffee too.”

Steve almost sounds like he’s wheedling when he mentions the coffee and that makes Clint grin. “Sure, how can I say no to waffles and coffee?”

The grin Steve wears is bright and happy for the rest of their trip back to the Tower.

~

Clint’s drifting to sleep when his mind decides to bite the clue stick, and then he’s wide awake and staring up at his ceiling in shock. Holy shit. Facts and signs slot together as Clint realizes he’s going on a date with Steve in the morning. The shock gives way to confusion and then uncertainty before being replaced with doubt tinged with more than a bit of hopefulness.

“It’s not a date,” he mutters and flops over to bury his head under his pillow. Determined to ignore everything and get at least a few hours of sleep. The question _But what if…?_ follows him into his dreams though.


	5. Peaches

“Your breath smells like peaches,” Steve says when Clint drops down next to him on the couch and leans against his side.

Clint grins and produces the peach he’d taken from the fruit basket in the kitchen with a flourish. It’s soft and sweet, and at the perfect ripeness. He doesn’t know why Tony’s got a fruit basket but Clint’s not complaining one bit. “Want some?”

“Sure,” Steve shifts so they’re both half sprawled out on the couch and reaches for the fruit.

“Uh-uh,” Clint pulls the peach back and waits for Steve to look back at him before he takes another bit. The flesh of the fruit is juicy and some of it runs down his chin besides his best efforts to drip on the cushions. It’ll be sticky later but it’s worth it for the interested look in Steve’s eyes as Clint angles his head up in an offer.

Like Clint expected, the peach is even sweeter when flavored with a kiss.


End file.
